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I thought it would be interesting to share some not-well-known information about the current apostles – some things that might surprise some of you: 1) The First Presidency hasn’t had someone who was an undergraduate at BYU in over ten years.
2) Only five of the 15 current apostles have undergraduate degrees from BYU.
3) Harvard is the second most frequently attended college or university for some level of degree.
4) Pres. Uchtdorf is a convert (as everyone knows); Elder Scott’s father was a convert.
5) The First Presidency averages 3.67 children (3, 6, and 2); the six senior apostles not in the FP average 7.5 chlidren – and Elder Perry is the only one with less than 7; the six junior apostles average 3.3 children – and none of them have more than 5)
[The only trend among the apostles that is out of the ordinary are the six senior apostles not in the FP; all the others would fit very well in the greater US society when it comes to family size.]6) There are more apostle who were educators than any other occupation; there are only three former lawyers and two former business executives; the other occupations are: publishing, pilot (two others were pilots in the military), accountant, doctor, salesman and nuclear engineer.
7)
SIX of the current apostles did not serve a mission, and of the other nine, only one served in the United States; the other eight all served in a foreign country. and a bonus “fact” – although I haven’t checked it, so it might just be a classic Mormon myth:
The first “bleep” of a swear word over the radio was J. Golden Kimball in his talk on the first radio broadcast session of General Conference.Any surprises? Thoughts?This seems silly, but its quite nice to know they are all quite well educated and intellectual men! Wasnt Kimball renowned for saying the word “Damn”??
J. Golden Kimball was raised in mining country and could swear like a lumberjack. He limited his swearing while giving talks in church and General Conference to the “basics”. He also was the first apostle to be ordered by the President of the Church to write his talks before conference and read them word-for-word. Story is that he tried to do it and said, from the pulpit, half-way through a GC talk: Quote:“Hell, Heber, I can’t read this damn thing!”
NotSure2008 wrote:This seems silly…)
I don’t think so. It shows the evolution of the church, and gives hope that the apostles are, like the rest of the church membership, adapting to the times. THE CULTURE IS CHANGING. The mere fact that 6 did not serve missions is astonishing! Why didn’t they? Perhaps they are “human” after all? And when you compare family sizes —- it appears that the younger half of the apostles are PERHAPS a lot more like my generation than my fathers generation — which means they may be able to see things, and understand things like my generation does? That gives me hope that change will happen.
#7 makes me laugh because on Sunday a young adult speaker advised the young women in the ward to “never settle for less than a return missionary!!!” Hmmmm pretty sure Apostle trumps RM.
Also do you think that those 6 apostles may have been serving in WW2 and that is why they missed a mission? I’m not sure of the ages of those apostles so its just a guess.
cwald wrote:NotSure2008 wrote:This seems silly…)
I don’t think so. It shows the evolution of the church, and gives hope that the apostles are, like the rest of the church membership, adapting to the times. THE CULTURE IS CHANGING. The mere fact that 6 did not serve missions is astonishing! Why didn’t they? Perhaps they are “human” after all? And when you compare family sizes —- it appears that the younger half of the apostles are PERHAPS a lot more like my generation than my fathers generation — which means they may be able to see things, and understand things like my generation does? That gives me hope that change will happen.
No I meant my thought was silly ie that I am pleased that they are all well educated and intellectual people. I think the whole idea of showing this is great!
What comes out of this – * They have relatively small families.
* None of them seem to come from working class backgrounds AFAIK.
* There’s an Ivy League element.
* Quite a few of them didn’t serve missions (they keep that one quiet)
We know that only a handful are non-white, and Polynesians are conspicuous by their absence.
All male of course.
What I’d like to know –
* How many of them come from Utah, or majority Mormon areas.
* How many come from distinctly non-Mormon parts of the states
* How many are not American.
* How many of them are related to other GAs, living or dead, or even prophets. (Certainly a few names pop up again and again.)
* How many of them have had direct political involvement.
canadiangirl wrote:#7 makes me laugh because on Sunday a young adult speaker advised the young women in the ward to “never settle for less than a return missionary!!!”
Yes, and that sucks. I was actually too old to go on a mission when I joined to begin with. I worked it out the other day. I wasn’t mad keen on the idea at the time either, it must be said. I had thought i was the right age, but I seem to have been in my twenties.
I’d be interested to know exactly who didn’t serve a mission.
Those who did not serve missions and the year they turned 19: Pres. Monson – 1946 (WWII – Navy)
Pres. Uchtdorf – 1959 (No military service)
Pres. Packer – 1943 (Pre-WWII – don’t know why – bet that’s a surprise)
Elder Nelson – 1940 (Pre-WWII – served in the Army in Korea)
Elder Oaks – 1951 (No military service – didn’t get a call because he was in the National Guard, but never served actively)
Elder Hales – 1951 (Korea – Air Force pilot)
Also of interest:
Elder Scott has said he served a mission only because his future wife said she wouldn’t marry him if he didn’t.
Pres. Eyring served as a “district missionary” – but I don’t know what that means or how old he was. I counted him as having served a mission, but I don’t know if it was a traditional full-time mission.
Sam, I think you are extrapolating a bit from what I’ve been able to find.
From the Wikipedia biographies:
Pres. Monson’s wife, Frances, “came from a higher social class”.
Pres. Eyring was the son of a well-known scientist and Dean of the University of Utah – and he was born in Princeton. Good money, but not great.
Pres. Uchtdorf’s father was a political refugee, but they eventually made pretty good money. Not rich, but comfortable.
Pres. Packer was the 10th of 11 children in a family from Brigham City, Utah. They probably were relatively poor.
I have no idea about Elder Perry.
Elder Nelson studied at LDS Business College while in his mid-teens. He was academically brilliant, but there is no indication that his family was well-off. I just don’t know.
Elder Oaks’ father died when he was eight. He probably was raised in relative poverty.
Elder Ballard’s father owned a successful car dealership. They were relatively well-off.
Elder Scott worked summer jobs “to earn money to attend college.”
Elder Hales was born and raised in Queens. (Yes, that Queens.) His father was a “successful artist”.
Elder Holland’s father was a convert. (missed that one) He started his career as an Institute Teacher. They don’t make much.
Elder Bednar’s father was a convert when Elder Bednar was in his late 20’s. He started his career as a college professor.
Elder Cook married his high school sweetheart and graduated from Standford Law School. Don’t know his family background.
Elder Christofferson worked as a Supreme Court clerk during Watergate before becoming a lawyer.
I don’t know Elder Anderson’s family background.
Also, this is about only the FP and Q12. I’m not going to put the effort into looking at the 70s. Old-Timer wrote:Pres. Packer – 1943 (Pre-WWII – don’t know why – bet that’s a surprise)
Elder Packer was a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps.
Can’t believe I typed “Pre-WWI” for Elder Packer. 1943 was smack dab in the middle of the war. Brain was fried, I guess. 😳 Interesting stuff Ray, very interesting. Pres. Monson didn’t serve a mission, well, there’s some ammunition for anyone who wants to criticise me for that. 😆 Interesting to learn about Uchtdorf. I have loved hearing and reading some of his talks, I think he has said some really positive things. I think, it’s also heartening to hear a few more foreign voices – mainly since I’m not an American myself.
However, like I say, where are all the Polynesians? Alright, we know that there aren’t vast numbers of them, but Polynesians of all kinds have good solid LDS communities, whether in mainly Polynesian communities e.g. Samoa, Tonga or Fiji, or in mixed ones e.g. Hawaii, New Zealand. I would have thought that one of them could have risen by now, but I suppose there are financial reasons for this.
On the other hand, the Japanese LDS community which is not so significant is well represented.
Old-Timer wrote:Can’t believe I typed “Pre-WWI” for Elder Packer. 1943 was smack dab in the middle of the war. Brain was fried, I guess.
😳 And this Ray,
“Elder Nelson – 1940 (Pre-WWII – served in the Army in Korea) “
1940, very much WWII, which started in 1939. It’s just the USA joined some months into it.
Don’t trust Wikipedia much, but read this –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_authority#General_authority_firsts I think there are a good few more converts amongst the GAs.
* Juan A. Uceda – Brazilian convert, albeit at 18.
* Koichi Aoyagi – Japanese convert, I think, from a General Conference speech he gave recently.
Yeah, I know, Sam. It’s particularly embarrassing since I was a History teacher in my former life. 
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